America Can’t Afford Not To Build The Energy Infrastructure We Need
As winter approaches, many households across America will be taking a closer look at their utility bills, and many won’t like what they see.
Oliver McPherson-Smith and Ted Ellis·Nov 6, 2026·5 min read
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As winter approaches, many households across America will be taking a closer look at their utility bills, and many won’t like what they see. New England offers a chilling example: last winter, the region’s wholesale electricity costs reached $6.53 billion, up 45 percent from the winter before. Households using electric heating are expected to spend $1,196 in total from November through March, up 4 percent.The formula is predictable: cold weather pushes up demand for natural gas, while constrained pipeline capacity limits how much fuel can reach the region. Cold weather and limited natural gas availability aren’t new for New England, but that bottleneck makes little sense for the United States, the world’s largest producer of natural gas.The paradox is that despite producing vast amounts of natural gas and other resources, the constraint is often being able to move such products from where they are produced to where they are most needed. As it turns out, Congress has the power to reduce the size of the bottleneck—and help save Americans from the sticker shock on their electric bills.The opportunity is in making it easier to build in America: ensuring that projects receive timely approvals and have reasonable certainty that their work won’t be stopped or their issued permit overturned. The proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) shows how the current environment has gone awry.The project was intended to carry Appalachian natural gas into Virginia and North Carolina. Project backers estimated that construction would support more than 17,000 jobs
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and that the completed pipeline could save consumers about
But less than three weeks later, the project was canceled.
Why? Because even after winning a landmark victory, project costs had accumulated to the point that the overall proposition was untenable. Costs rose from an initial projected
When ACP was canceled, consumers lost a potential source of additional supply and the savings its developers had projected. Worse, this is a system-wide phenomenon. For environmental impact statements (EIS) completed in 2024, the median review took
to finalize. And that’s just one part of the regulatory review process.
Those delays add up: financing costs mount as projects wait for initial approval or for work to restart after project opponents file a lawsuit. While firms deal with legal issues, shifts in labor and equipment availability can add still more cost. Some projects survive the process at a higher cost. Others no longer make financial sense at all. Still others may never be proposed because developers anticipate years of legal challenges.
. Reshored manufacturing, industrial revival, consumer electrification, and advanced computing require significant amounts of cost-effective, highly reliable energy. That requires that we build the power plants, fuel pipelines, electricity transmission lines, and other infrastructure to match.
We know America can build these projects. The question is whether they can be built affordably and at the scale required to lower prices for Americans at home while winning the global industrial and computing race that will dominate the 21st century.
a package of policy reforms that would set firmer federal permitting deadlines, reduce duplicative or unnecessary paperwork, and provide stronger protections for developers to keep their permits, including by limiting drawn-out lawsuits.
The same permitting problems can ensnare pipelines, power plants, transmission lines, mines, and renewable projects. That leaves plenty of room for bipartisan reform that protects the environment while allowing America to build. The point is not to waive environmental law. It is to ensure that agencies reach decisions on a reasonable schedule and that lawful approvals mean something once they are issued.
These are projects America cannot do without. Modern gas and nuclear generation can provide power when customers need it; more reliable power plants paired with sufficient fuel and electricity delivery can help give consumers more options and lower prices consistently over the long term.
Families already face enough pressure on their paychecks. Our leaders should embrace policies that make it easier to build the affordable, reliable energy that powers America and affects the price of nearly everything. America can’t afford to do otherwise. America can’t afford not to build.
Oliver McPherson-Smith, Ph.D, serves as the Vice Chair for Energy & Environment Policy at AFPI and formerly served as Deputy Assistant to the President in the White House. Ted Ellis serves as the Deputy Director for Energy & Environment Policy at AFPI and formerly served as Vice President at the Energy Freedom Fund.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact
